Is Fluor Stock Your Ticket to Becoming a Millionaire?

Key Points

• Fluor shares have performed very well in recent years.

• The company's long-term history paints a telling story.

• 10 stocks we like better than Fluor ›

Fluor (NYSE: FLR) investors have been very happy over the last five years. Over that time period, shares have risen in value by roughly 365%. That's a compound annual growth rate of 36%, more than 3 times the stock market's long-term average.

Is Fluor your secret to retiring a millionaire? The answer might surprise you.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Two things to know about Fluor's operating history

At its core, Fluor is an engineering and construction company. It serves a variety of sectors, everything from oil and gas to mining and power generation. When big infrastructure projects need planning and building, many companies call on Fluor to handle nearly the entire process.

The last five years have been incredible for Fluor's stock price. But the financials tell a slightly different story. Since 2020, company revenue has increased by just 6.6%. Gross profits, meanwhile, have increased by just 36% over that time period. The stock's price-to-sales ratio is the clear outlier, moving from 0.07 to 0.47 since 2020 -- a rise of nearly 480%.

From this perspective, most of Fluor's stock price appreciation over the last five years has stemmed from a massive increase in its valuation multiple, not improvements to revenue or gross profits. A big reason for this was the company's flip to profitability last year. From 2020 to 2024, Fluor averaged a profit margin of roughly 0%. Over the last 12 months, however, its profit margin has reached 25%. The company is managing its costs, contracts, and execution better today than it has in years. But the biggest mover has been the company's realized and unrealized profits on its position in a small modular rector business that has seen its share price soar. We'll talk more about that position in the next segment, but these two factors contribute to the first thing investors should understand about Fluor's recent operating history: The company has gone from a money-loser to a fairly profitable business in under five years, causing a sharp rerating of the stock.

When you zoom out, you'll see that this type of rerating has happened many times over Fluor's operating history. Engineering and construction can be a cyclical business with huge ups and downs. Cost overruns, meanwhile, can crash the company's financials even when demand is strong. This means that the market has occasionally rerated the stock sharply in both directions -- both up and down.

FLR data by YCharts

Over the decades, Fluor stock has seen several extreme ups and downs. A big reason for the latest spike has been the company's interest in NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR). Beginning in 2011, Fluor began investing hundreds of millions of dollars in designing small reactor technology. It consolidated this interest into NuScale Power, which went public as a separate entity in 2022. Because Fluor still owns a majority of shares, the results are consolidated into Fluor's financials, having an outsize effect on the company's bottom line. Shares held or sold at a profit, for example, will cause Fluor's profits to spike.

This is the second thing to understand about Fluor's operating history: The performance in recent years has been fueled by new business ventures that didn't exist in years past.

Image source: Getty Images.

Does this make Fluor stock a sell?

Fluor's stock has performed very well in recent years. But over the decades, the company has largely been a disappointment for investors. The ups and downs of engineering and construction are wild, and have largely left patient investors lagging the overall market. Recent outperformance, meanwhile, has had more to do with NuScale's success and a rerating of the stock versus a dramatic shift in conditions for the core company.

Does this make shares a sell? Not necessarily. Many investors specialize in cyclical stocks. But you need to understand when conditions are suitable, getting out before these favorable conditions change. NuScale's opportunity in small modular reactors, however, could be an opportunity with decades of growth ahead. If Fluor is on your radar for its strong recent performance, you might actually be better off digging into NuScale.

Should you invest $1,000 in Fluor right now?

Before you buy stock in Fluor, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Fluor wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $652,872!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,092,280!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 189% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 22, 2025

Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.